Bruschetta

Here's the recipe for the bruschetta we had at the beach by Carrie's birthday request. This is about half the amount we made that night.

1 lb. roma tomatoes chopped small
2 T. olive oil
1/2 t. salt
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 t. coarsely ground pepper
3 T. fresh basil
1 T. fresh parsley (optional)

Mix all together and let sit while you slice up and toast a baquette.

Add 4 oz. mozzarella cheese chopped into small cubes to the mix, and serve on the toast.

Pesto Pizza

This is from the Pioneer Woman site. I made it for lunch today. Very good. Maybe I should have taken a picture right when it came out of the oven instead of an hour later. Oh well. It was still good.

You can use this with a homemade crust, or prebaked (thin is good for this pizza). Spoon pesto over the crust, and sprinkle salt over it. Lay out thin slices of mozzarella, then thin slices of tomato. Follow with some more smaller bits of mozzarella on top, then finish with a layer of grated parmesan cheese.

Bake it according to crust directions, but pay attention to it as it bakes. I cooked mine at 450 for 8 minutes, then kept it under the broiler to brown the top. It was perfect.

Chilie Verde!

This is what made me decide I could like Mexican food. YUM YUM!

Cubes of pork - 1 lb? (the measurements of this one are going to drive some of you crazy)

Tomatillos - 15-20 med.- chopped

7 oz can of chopped green chilies

1 onion - chopped

3+ cloves of garlic

2+Tbsp of "jhalapinyo" peppers (don't be afraid)

1 tsp cummin

salt and pepper

Brown pork in a little oil or butter. Very hot. Just sizzle them around till they brown a little and no pink is left. Add all the other ingredients (save salt and pepper to taste at the end) and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 1 1/2+ hours, or until the meat falls apart and most of the liquid cooks out. Or you can put the browned meat and everything else in a crock pot on hi for 4-5 hours. Don't forget the salt and pepper. Shred up the meat the best you can and serve in hot (so they get soft) corn tortillas with cheese and sour cream. It is also really good over cheese enchiladas (cheese and corn tortillas) and baked.

Chicken Pot Pie

Easy to keep the basic ingredients on hand, especially if you buy frozen pie crusts:

Ingredients:
1-2 carrots, cut up
4-5 medium potatoes, cubed (I leave the skins on)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1-2 cans of chicken
1 can chicken gravy
1 pie crust
sage, pepper

1) Boil carrots and potatoes together until soft (10 min?)

2) Combine chicken, peas and gravy in frying pan, warm through.

3) Add carrots and potatoes, season to taste with sage and pepper. Be generous with the sage.

4) Pour into pie crust, cook at 400' until crust is brown, 20-25 min. Yum, yum!

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

If you want to see this recipe being made, I got it from:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/french_breakfast_puffs/

Except instead of nutmeg I used "apple pie spice" which is cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Also, I chopped up an apple into bits and threw it in the dough, an addition I will definitely duplicate in the future. And, for the butter/sugar part I did half as much as the recipe calls for and it was more than enough.

Banana Bread

Don't eat those last two nasty bananas. Make banana bread!

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (usually about 2 large bananas)

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Cream sugar, shortening and eggs by beating with an electric mixer for 3 minutes. Add mashed banana. Stir in dry ingredients. Pour into two bread pans. Bake at 350 until knife comes out clean (apprx 40 mins depending on size of pans).

Recipes I'm looking for...

-Breakfast casserole- Kathy made some one time, "crowd for brunch" i think it was called.
-Bruschetta
-Cheese soup
-Roasted vegetables
-Green enchiladas - I've tried a few, but haven't found 'the one'.

Stir Fry

Need more vegetables in your life? Try some stir fry!

First put 2 cubed chicken breasts in this marinade:
1 tsp ginger
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 clove crushed garlic

Then while your chicken soaks up the flavor, chop up whatever vegetables you have: carrots, broccoli, peas, mushrooms, bell pepper, etc.

Heat up oil in a wok or a big fry pan. Add chicken first and then vegetables in order of cooking time. Add a bit more soy sauce if needed and serve over rice!

Crash Potato Pizza

Adapted via failure from Pioneer Woman Cooks

Start with potatoes that were boiled in salted water. Red potatoes are really good, but I did mine with Yukon Gold. Oil a cookie sheet generously with olive oil. Put the potatoes on the sheet and smash gently with a masher or the back of something flat. The PW receipe shows cute, flower bundles of potato, but mine exploded. So, we went with it and filled in the whole pan with chunky potato.

Then pile on WHATEVER (see below). We went with BBQ sauce, lots of salt and pepper, ham, crumbled bacon, and lots of cheese. Cook at 450* for 20 min until cheese turns toasty.

Tips:
1. Make sure the potatoes are completely cooked, but not mush.
2. Use lots of salt and flavor (read garlic salt, herbs, itallian dressing etc). Ours were kind of boring, even with the bacon and BBQ sauce. 3. Use whatever you like: Think pizza toppings and potato toppings. Scrambled egg and cheese would be good. I was even thinking of trying turkey with gravy on top. hhmmmm.

Quiche

Start with a pie crust in 9 in pie pan. Fork bottom, cover with foil and cook for 8 mins at 425*.

Necessary filling
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup grated cheddar
1/4 cup grated parmesan
salt/pepper

Optional filling additions
bacon, sausage, potato cubes, red bell pepper, broccoli, onion, spinach, mushrooms

Fill pie shell and cook at 350* for 45 mins. Will look a little soupy. Let stand 5 mins.

Crepes

2 eggs
1 1/3- 1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup flour

Grease a hot pan with butter. Pour in batter to cover almost 1/2 the pan then roll the batter around to cover the entire bottom of the pan. Flip.

Recipe credit: Chris "don't stand so close to me" Gregory

Pankegg

Ah the pankegg. An old family classic. Good for breakfast or fast dinner.
Crack an egg on to a preheated pan and drizzle pancake batter around it or vice versa. The only complicated part is the flipping. It goes wrong for me about 50% of the time.

Cakies (Cake Mix Cookies)

I love these cookies because they are so easy!

Whisk together:
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

Add:
1 box any flavor cake mix and stir the ingredients real good with a wooden spoon.

Then add:
1/2 bag chocolate chips

Roll into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet.
350 for 10 minutes, 2 minutes cooling on the pan

Combos: Choc cake/butterscotch chips, lemon cake/white choc chips, choc/choc chips, etc.

Beans

2 cups rinsed pinto beans
4-8 strips bacon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Put beans in a big pot and cover with water about 2 inches above the beans. Add (uncooked) bacon. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 2-2.5 hours. It is done when most of the water is gone and the beans are nice and tender. Stir in salt/pepper. Serve with corn bread!

Pressure cooker version
2 cups of beans
1 clove garlic
1 jalapeno pepper
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2-4 strips bacon
other: some cumin or chile powder could be good.

Soak beans for at least 4 hours. This is critical.
Put in pressure cooker and bring to pressure for 12-15 minutes. Use quick release method. If beans are still tough at all, put it back on the stove for 1-2 minutes more.

Cran-Apple Muffins

Cream together:
2 eggs
3/4 c sugar
2 Tbsp oil (can be replaced with 2 heaping Tbsp of Applesause)

Mix and gently add to above:
1 1/2 c Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp cinnimon
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

It will be really thick.
Gently stir in all or none of :
2 c chopped apples, 1 c dried cranberries, 1/2 c chopped walnuts

Loaf - 55-60 min 350*
Muffins - 12 min 340* (watch them)
(Grease the Pans!)

Popscicles

1 part yogurt, 4 parts juice - pieces of fruit optional
Any juice, any yogurt - some combos better than others. You can freeze in any shape and eat with a spoon. The yogurt softens it a bit so you don't feet like you are knawing on a flavored ice cube!

Our favorite currently is Dole orange-peach-mango juice with peach yogurt.
Great summer fun.

Mom's Pizza Crust - sort of

1 c Very warm water (not hot, not warm)
1 T yeast
1 dash sugar

Pour the yeast on top of the water in a bowl. Let it sit for 5 min till it gets all bubbly. Pre-mix the dry stuff, then add to yeast/water:

1 heaping tsp salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 c Flour
1T olive oil (I have left this out accidentily and it still worked!)

Mix in a mixer, or stir the heck out of it with a wooden spoon. Should be a smooth, soft dough. Add a little flour if it is too sticky. Spread thin (this takes some work and patience. if it is too springy, let it sit for a few min, the yeast will soften it up) in a GREASED cookie sheet for the square classic, or divide into parts to make calzones.
Cook in HOT oven (read 430*) for 15-17 min. Cheese should be brown on top. Yummm!

Taco Soup

2 cans of beans (any kind you like-pinto, black, kidney)
1 can corn
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes w/green chilies
1 can chicken (or other meat)
1 chopped bell pepper
1/2 chopped onion
1 cup water

1 package ranch dressing mix
1 package taco seasoning

Put everything together and let it simmer for as long as you can. Serve with shredded cheese and chips.

Welcome to the sister's food blog!

This cake was so good I had to give some of it away 4 times. It is so moist and sooo good.

1 package devils food cake mix
1 package instant chocolate pudding mix
1.5 cups sour cream
1 cup melted butter
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat over to 350. Stir together cake mix and pudding mix. Make a little well and pour in the sour cream, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed until blended, then for four additional minutes . Stir in chocolate chips, Butter and flour a 10 inch bundt pan or- four small bread pans. Cook for 50 - 55 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes. Put a plate on the bottom, flip it and frosting it.

credit- adapted from pioneer woman contest entry #66